signal_4
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2005
- Messages
- 109
Hi All !!!!! I just wanted to let everyone know about my visit to the White Flash Office today.... For those of you who haven''t read my post on my WF ACA H&A diamond you can read it and see pictures that I took here
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/signal_4s-wf-aca-h-a-diamond-pictures.26688/
As I was saying I got my Diamond a 1.174 G-VS1 ACA H&A diamond about 2 weeks ago. Last week John Q told me that if I was in town before I had the diamond set to come by the office and they would give me a tour and take photos of my diamond for me. Well I decided to take him up on the offer... So today I drove up from Corpus Christi which is about 3.5 hours south of Houston and me and my brother went to the White Flash office... When we got there we were met by Brian... I was so excited to meet him since he is a well known individual in this business.... it was like I was meeting a celebrity.... Brian took us back into his office where we talked for a little bit about my diamond and the ACA line....
Then he took us to another room where they take pictures of the diamonds.... first let me say that I have read some of the posts on this forum about how White Flash needs to post pictures of the H&A patterns on their site....Now I know why they dont.... yet at moment.... They have a H&A photo system they designed and hand-built which incorporates a H&A viewer in a controlled lighting environment with a digital camera... Now some might say whats so hard about that.... you just put the diamond in... press the button ... snap... and the picture is taken right ??? WRONG !!!!. Even though it sounds easy its not... As any one who has used a H&A viewer will know... one slight move of your head when looking through the thing and the image of the diamond changes and I know I cant keep my head that still... Well its the same with the machine that is used... . so it might take some back and forth playing with to get that perfect equilibrium to make the lighting balanced.
Then they have to make sure that the diamond is balanced correctly and is perfectly perpendicular to the camera.... That also takes some playing with cause again... once the diamond moves a bit then the lighting might again be off. Then they have to make sure that the camera has the correct shutter speed... light reading ... and focus...ect... to take the picuture... I think Brian took about 10 photos of each side before he was happy.... So from a scientific perspective.... since I have a geology degree... its a trial by error process to get that perfect picture for the customer... Its not just a two minute process but rather very time consuming.... and when Brian showed me the ACA inventory I can see why they only do pictures on request.... However Brian did say they that they might be getting a new camera soon which would help out.
Also... I read reviews that some people think that the pictures that they take are doctored up by computer programs... This is not so... I can testify to that in court... HEHE ... I thought I throw that in since Im a Police Officer.... Yes I know what you saying... Why do I have a geology degree and instead choose law enforcement as a career.... well its a long story and a whole new thread if you really want to know.... which Im sure you have more important things to do in life.... Any way back to what I was saying... the pictures that Im posting that they took of my diamond were taken right before my very eyes and are in no way doctored up..
Then Brian showed me my diamond under the ideal scope so that I could compare it to the picture on the site and it looked excatly the same.... again no doctoring either on ideal scope picture... and then I held my diamond up through the window and let plain daylight come through the ideal scope and again it looked the same....
Then after the pictures were taken we went back to Brian''s office where he showed me the laser inscription on the diamond under the microscope and the tiny crystal.... you could only see it under microscope magnification....
After that we played game.... called the Pepsi challenge by Brian.... he showed me a .02 carat ACA H&A diamond and then let me choose at random three stones from thier inventory and then he showed the largest ACA H&A diamond that they had... a 7.54 carat diamond worth about $ 250,000... I got to hold it !!!!!.... any way as I had no doubt that all the diamonds would have uniform heart and arrow patterns... and of course they all did... what I was surprised to see was that each diamond had the same shape of hearts... What I mean was that I could tell no difference in the heart shape from the .02 carat to the 7.54 carat diamond.... it was like I was looking at my own diamond under the H&A viewer each time....
So to those of you who are still out their wondering... all 5 diamonds had the same H&A pattern and shape....
I just want to thank all the people at WF especially Denise, John Q, and Brian... all of which are great people.... and I think that they would show the same hospitality to anyone who would take the time to visit the office... My visit lasted about 2.5 hours by the way... And although even I picked a TACORI ring for a setting... if they can make a band that fits with the ring then thats who Im getting my band from... as well my setting is a three stone and eventually I want to replace the two sidestones with ACA H&A stones...
And for those reading the other post that question WF and why they dont post H&A pics... reread this thread.... haha..... realize that if you request ... JOHN Q has said this many times.... they will take the pics.... also realize that in my opinion, the people who are criticizing and judging, are people with the personality who would find life useless if they didnt have something to complain about... The ACA line is exactly what is says it is and if you still dont believe WF then explore this site and challenge yourself to find someone who was unsatisfied with their ACA diamond.
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/signal_4s-wf-aca-h-a-diamond-pictures.26688/
As I was saying I got my Diamond a 1.174 G-VS1 ACA H&A diamond about 2 weeks ago. Last week John Q told me that if I was in town before I had the diamond set to come by the office and they would give me a tour and take photos of my diamond for me. Well I decided to take him up on the offer... So today I drove up from Corpus Christi which is about 3.5 hours south of Houston and me and my brother went to the White Flash office... When we got there we were met by Brian... I was so excited to meet him since he is a well known individual in this business.... it was like I was meeting a celebrity.... Brian took us back into his office where we talked for a little bit about my diamond and the ACA line....
Then he took us to another room where they take pictures of the diamonds.... first let me say that I have read some of the posts on this forum about how White Flash needs to post pictures of the H&A patterns on their site....Now I know why they dont.... yet at moment.... They have a H&A photo system they designed and hand-built which incorporates a H&A viewer in a controlled lighting environment with a digital camera... Now some might say whats so hard about that.... you just put the diamond in... press the button ... snap... and the picture is taken right ??? WRONG !!!!. Even though it sounds easy its not... As any one who has used a H&A viewer will know... one slight move of your head when looking through the thing and the image of the diamond changes and I know I cant keep my head that still... Well its the same with the machine that is used... . so it might take some back and forth playing with to get that perfect equilibrium to make the lighting balanced.
Then they have to make sure that the diamond is balanced correctly and is perfectly perpendicular to the camera.... That also takes some playing with cause again... once the diamond moves a bit then the lighting might again be off. Then they have to make sure that the camera has the correct shutter speed... light reading ... and focus...ect... to take the picuture... I think Brian took about 10 photos of each side before he was happy.... So from a scientific perspective.... since I have a geology degree... its a trial by error process to get that perfect picture for the customer... Its not just a two minute process but rather very time consuming.... and when Brian showed me the ACA inventory I can see why they only do pictures on request.... However Brian did say they that they might be getting a new camera soon which would help out.
Also... I read reviews that some people think that the pictures that they take are doctored up by computer programs... This is not so... I can testify to that in court... HEHE ... I thought I throw that in since Im a Police Officer.... Yes I know what you saying... Why do I have a geology degree and instead choose law enforcement as a career.... well its a long story and a whole new thread if you really want to know.... which Im sure you have more important things to do in life.... Any way back to what I was saying... the pictures that Im posting that they took of my diamond were taken right before my very eyes and are in no way doctored up..
Then Brian showed me my diamond under the ideal scope so that I could compare it to the picture on the site and it looked excatly the same.... again no doctoring either on ideal scope picture... and then I held my diamond up through the window and let plain daylight come through the ideal scope and again it looked the same....
Then after the pictures were taken we went back to Brian''s office where he showed me the laser inscription on the diamond under the microscope and the tiny crystal.... you could only see it under microscope magnification....
After that we played game.... called the Pepsi challenge by Brian.... he showed me a .02 carat ACA H&A diamond and then let me choose at random three stones from thier inventory and then he showed the largest ACA H&A diamond that they had... a 7.54 carat diamond worth about $ 250,000... I got to hold it !!!!!.... any way as I had no doubt that all the diamonds would have uniform heart and arrow patterns... and of course they all did... what I was surprised to see was that each diamond had the same shape of hearts... What I mean was that I could tell no difference in the heart shape from the .02 carat to the 7.54 carat diamond.... it was like I was looking at my own diamond under the H&A viewer each time....
So to those of you who are still out their wondering... all 5 diamonds had the same H&A pattern and shape....
I just want to thank all the people at WF especially Denise, John Q, and Brian... all of which are great people.... and I think that they would show the same hospitality to anyone who would take the time to visit the office... My visit lasted about 2.5 hours by the way... And although even I picked a TACORI ring for a setting... if they can make a band that fits with the ring then thats who Im getting my band from... as well my setting is a three stone and eventually I want to replace the two sidestones with ACA H&A stones...
And for those reading the other post that question WF and why they dont post H&A pics... reread this thread.... haha..... realize that if you request ... JOHN Q has said this many times.... they will take the pics.... also realize that in my opinion, the people who are criticizing and judging, are people with the personality who would find life useless if they didnt have something to complain about... The ACA line is exactly what is says it is and if you still dont believe WF then explore this site and challenge yourself to find someone who was unsatisfied with their ACA diamond.